A William Wurster–Designed Gem in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights Asks $6.9 Million

In one of America’s most sought-after neighborhoods, San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, there is a newly listed building designed by one of the Bay Area’s most renowned architects of the past century: William Wurster.

Although Wurster designed landmarks like Ghirardelli Square as well as campus buildings at UC Berkeley (where he became the dean of the School of Architecture in 1950) and Stanford University, he was best known for designing hundreds of California homes dating from the 1920s to 1940s.

The entrance is carved into the front of the house – a design step that provides shelter on rainy days in San Francisco.

These houses were built in simple shapes with locally sourced wood and helped define contemporary residential architecture. Wurster’s Gregory Farmhouse from 1928 in Scotts Valley, California, is even considered a kind of prototype for the later ubiquitous ranch house.

The house Wurster designed on 1641 Green Street in Pacific Heights is not a ranch, but an exercise in higher-density urban living – its garage door greets visitors at the edge of the sidewalk, while the living areas are on the upper floors. Even so, there is a surprisingly lush garden area at the rear of the property, reminiscent of the more pastoral settings one associates with ranch houses.

The house leads to its back garden with a series of terraced balconies.

While many nearby apartment buildings are essentially maisonettes, with second units at the rear of their rectangular hilltop lots, this home reserves more than half of its entire lot for green space, including a tall, full-grown eucalyptus tree.

The garden, which combines traditional Olmsted-influenced design elements with modernist sensibility, was designed by William Wurster’s frequent collaborator Thomas Church.

The house was completed in 1940 – a transition period in Wurster’s life and career as he began to move away from primarily house design. Wurster also married influential public housing advocate Catherine Bauer that same year while attending the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Like the adjoining dining room, the living room opens directly onto the garden.

Wurster’s clients for this Pacific Heights home were significant in themselves. During World War II, Harley and Georgiana Stevens both worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA.

The dining room is particularly flooded with light.

Although they traveled extensively – both during and after the war (including spending several years in Beirut while Harley worked as a lawyer for the oil industry and Georgiana became Middle East correspondent for The Atlantic and The Economist) – the couple never let go of their home. After Harley died in 1959, Georgiana stayed here until her own death in 2004.

A 2017 remodel by Butler Armsden updated the finishes of the house – especially in the kitchen and bathroom.

Butler Armsden Architects from San Francisco completely rebuilt the four-story house in 2017. “Like most Wurster houses, this house uses simple, unpretentious materials – especially the Douglas fir paneling that you find everywhere,” explains Glenda Flaim, the office’s executive director. “It was designed with a flexible, adaptable plan that is still very relevant to our lives today and a great deal of attention to the location.”

The master bedroom looks out over the garden and continues the palette of Douglas fir paneling.

The master suite also has its own fireplace.

In fact, the Douglas fir walls are amazingly beautiful when you step into the house. Although this wood can often take on an unpleasant shade of orange with age, the panels here are exquisitely preserved and at the same time show a level of detail that makes the whole house sing.

“We have modernized the service rooms (bathrooms and kitchen) and restored the beautiful original materials and numerous fixtures,” adds Flaim, “but above all we have worked to preserve the essence of this house.”

The master bathroom on the third floor with its own shower area with glass cubes looks directly onto Green Street.

William Wurster was just one of two major designers involved in this project. The other was Wurster’s frequent associate and professor at the University of California, the landscape architect Thomas Church.

Though Church’s colleague Lawrence Halprin of San Francisco is often credited with introducing modernist principles to landscape architecture, it was Church, born 12 years earlier, that helped pioneer what became known as the California garden style.

The family room on the 4th floor has its own terrace with a garden view.

The family room deck expands the space for real Californian living indoors and outdoors.

Here in Pacific Heights, Church and Wurster created what the property listing aptly describes as “a magical retreat with a towering eucalyptus tree, green lawn and gardens, and an outdoor dining area adjacent to the chic formal dining room. “Church’s original landscape design and concept” has been carefully preserved, adding a sense of space and privacy to the home, “says Flaim.

The main kitchen / living / dining area of ​​the four story house is on the second level, but due to the hillside location of the property, these rooms open directly to the landscaped garden in the background.

The second largest bedroom in the house is actually the one that opens onto its own terrace overlooking the back yard.

The deck on the second floor feels like your own private tree house.

Up one floor is the master suite, which has walls clad in the same beautiful Doug pine paneling and large windows overlooking the garden. Adjacent is a guest room with a convenience that even the master bedroom lacks: it opens to an aft deck.

There is a family room on the top floor which also extends to a private deck overlooking the street. There is also an additional bedroom that can be used as an additional guest room or as a small office. If you don’t feel like climbing three flights of stairs to get there, don’t worry: this home has its own elevator.

Completed in 1940, the house is unusually urban for a design by William Wurster. It borrows from the German Bauhaus movement and the work of architects such as Walter Gropius.

In a place like Pacific Heights, once dubbed America’s most expensive neighborhood, it’s not just about the house. About 12 blocks west is the Presidio, which has hiking trails and lots of greenery. A few blocks east of the property is hundreds of restaurants in Chinatown and North Beach.

Nevertheless, this house with its lush garden offers a personal oasis that one would never want to leave again.

1641 Green Street in San Francisco, California is being offered by Neil Bassi of Sotheby’s International Realty for $ 6,925,000.